BBM not completely free?

Hello my forum freaks.
I tought the BBM was a free thing, world wide.
But a friend of mine tolld me that it's only free in your own country and if you want to 'ping' with someone from ie Amerika you need to pay for it. (i'm from Holland)
Is this true and why the bananas is this the case?
Thanks.

That would be like saying that emails to recipients outside your country are subject to special charges. I send and receive PINs and BBMs with a number of people in Europe (and in America, when I'm in Europe or Asia) and such an arrangement doesn't exist.

The only time there would be a charge is if YOU went to another country and continued to use BBM, web browsing, or other data programs. Unless you have an international data plan, or use a pre-paid SIM card while out of the country, you would probably get charged data-roaming charges.

There isn't any charge for using data within your own carrier, no matter who you are communicating with via BBM (even if they are in another country).

I regularly BBM a friend that lives in Mexico (I'm in the U.S.) and there's no extra charge. Now if I was in Mexico and I were BBM'ing someone then I'd imagine I'd get charged extra for using data outside of my home country.

BBM is like every other IM tool, be it MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, etc. You can IM freely to and from any country except the only difference is you must have your BB associated to a BIS plan in your home country.